Dubai: The second-generation Yoga Tablet 2 Pro is a 13.3-inch device with a folded magazine design with many innovative features, including a projector.
The biggest improvement is the screen resolution. It now has a Quad HD display (2560 x 1440 pixels) and is powered by quad-core Intel Atom 1.86GHz processor. It houses 2GB of RAM and 32GB of internal storage capacity. The storage capacity can be expanded up to 64GB via a micro-SD card slot at the back, a nice feature in a tablet.
The pre-loaded Android KitKat operating system is heavy customised with Lenovo overlay.
The tablet is made of aluminium and aluminium finish polycarbonate back to give it a premium look. It weighs just 950 grams.
The tablet can be viewed in four modes — hold, tilt, hang and stand. The folded hinge at the back can be used for tilt mode to watch movies and stand mode for typing very comfortably. Drilled into the kickstand is a dime-sized hole from which you can hang the tablet to watch movies or can be used as an expensive picture frame.
The hinged kickstand is attached to a cylindrical bulge. The hinge pops out when pressing a button on the rear of the device, next to the camera, and sliding it into whatever angle you’d like is easy. The viewing angles are good.
The multitasking features are good and work well.
The cylinder-shaped end of the tablet is good for reading in the hold mode and in the portrait position but in the landscape mode, it is uncomfortable and does not balance well in the hands due to the cylinder shape.
One end of the cylinder houses the power button and the other end houses the projector. On the left side sits the micro USB charging port and the volume rocker while the Pico projector on/off button sits on the right side.
The Pico projector with 40-50 lumens is capable of projecting a WVGA (854x 480 pixels) up to 50 inches in size and it is useful both for work and play. The adjustable focus switch is placed under the cylindrical base. The projector can be activated by a physical button on the side of the chassis, or by a software button on the main interface screen.
It is good for watching videos at home on a big screen but the quality of the projector is OK but not Full HD even though the screen is quad HD. In bright light the pictures are fairly washed out. The battery gives close to three hours of video playback with the projector.
The 8MP camera with f2.2 wide-aperture lens at the back is not that great and taking pictures in the dark is ruled out as it does not have a LED flash. The placement is undoubtedly in a strange spot; at the centre of the bottom part as taking photos in the landscape mode is tricky and sometimes can be blocked by your fingers. In bright light conditions, it takes decent photos.
The exposure, brightness, contrast ratio, saturation levels and sharpness can be manually adjusted. There are three colour effects — mono, sepia and negative.
The 1.6MP HD camera is good only for video chatting. There is an image brightening feature for taking selfies.
The integrated 8W sound system gives you a rich, immersive audio experience with Wolfson Master HiFi audio processing and Dolby surround sound technology.
The back camera can record in Full HD but the front is capable of only 720P.
The dual JBL speakers are on the front side of the cylindrical end. It is supported by Dolby Digital Plus technology which can improve the quality of sound. The difference is noticeable and this function can be enabled or disabled in the settings menu.
Lenovo has added a 5 watt JBL Subwoofer at the back but it does not add much bass to the sound.
Regarding connectivity, it has WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, micro USB and 3.5mm audio jack. No NFC, HDMI port and GPS.
The 9,600mAh battery gives close to 14 hours of use which is pretty good in tablet standards. The price starts from Dh2,499.
